Dodger eats a seed treat as Belle and Sparty chow in the background, 8/24/2010

Since Sparty was in focus, I processed the colors to try to accentuate her yellow.
8/8/2010

This photo of Belle and Sparty flying is by Jessica. She was working with some new techniques and really managed to capture them amazingly well! (8-8-2010)

We’ve called him Little Blue since we got him (he’s a different, less green kind of blue than Belle) and now we’re starting to call him Dodger–we’ll see if that one sticks. But whatever his name, he is an energetic, adventurous and very young little parakeet–he’s been a lot of fun so far and already gets along well with Belle and well enough with (the very territorial) Sparty but the new bird is quite a handful when let out of the cage. Dodger just takes off, sort of flying but not really, swampboating his way along the floor until he hits–thud–the wall. When Belle is down with him things are much calmer as Dodger just follows Belle around the room.

June 26, 2010

I’m always amazed by the personality of our little yellow bird Sparty (aka Sparta). She [Jessica is pretty sure Sparta's a female now, and I don't disagree] is so funny–here she was next to Belle on the cage standing on one leg for a while, long enough for me to quietly grab the camera and take this quick snapshot.

Our birds are good travelers–they tend to come with us on car trips, provided we have a pet-friendly destination. Here Sparty and Belle are hanging out in their travel cage at my parents’ house when Jessica and I were in town for my sister Ellen’s wedding on June 12, 2010.

They like to fly around and land on framed art, even if they have to lean at a strange angle to keep their balance. Their friend Ava taught them the technique in the past but now they’ve taken it to a whole new level, spending long spells of time on those ledges.

May 10, 2010